Test Management

Overview

Incorporating Test Management Throughout the Product Development Lifecycle

Proper test management helps assure your product performs as intended, both throughout the development process and in its final state. It’s the verification and validation that your product functions in the expected way, as measured by defined requirements.

Today’s product complexity means test management goes beyond a simple pass or fail — it is such an intense process that it’s a project on its own. Involving quality assurance (QA) and engineering team members early in the product development lifecycle helps find and resolve issues earlier. This improves quality, which mitigates risk and increases confidence during product delivery.

Validation and verification of requirements in complex systems demands well-thought-out plans and enough time to execute.

The Challenge

Pitfalls of Ineffective Test Management

The test management process doesn’t provide full visibility — to the QA teams or those who are interested in the results — into what’s being tested and why.

Manual Consolidation of Multiple Tests

Often tests are scattered across multiple systems and teams. One QA team may only see a fraction of all the requirements and are only exposed to those they’re testing against. They may also only see tests required at that specific point in time, and not be privy to testing efforts planned before and after. Manual consolidation of results from multiple tools at different times risks quality and jeopardizes compliance.

Late to the Development Process

In most companies, testers enter the product development process too late. This means they don’t have visibility into past decisions, and are forced to catch up by digging for information from a variety of people and departments. The result is the inability to quickly mitigate issues during the development process, which leads to wasted resources, as well as delayed product launches.

The Solution

Elevate Your Test Management Process

In an advanced product development process, quality assurance and engineering team members are involved from day one — when requirements are first discussed. Timely involvement allows teams to better prepare testing procedures to ensure they’re happening at the right times and in the right areas.

Team members can determine what and how they will test, and verify that it will yield the information needed to show quality and compliance. Plus, they’ll have the appropriate time to mitigate any issues without impacting product schedules or launch plans. Teams can build these plans into the overall product development process and work toward successful outcomes.